Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - From the Streets to Stocks: Leon Howard's Journey from New Orleans to Wall Street

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Leon Howard, better known as the Wall Street Trapper, is our guest in this gripping episode that takes you from the gritty streets of New Orleans to the bustling heart of Wall Street. Leon's remarkable transformation from a life shadowed by adversity to one illuminated by financial wisdom is a testament to the power of knowledge. He shares his inspiring journey from witnessing violence and serving time in prison to becoming a beacon of financial literacy for his community. This episode shines a light on how a chance encounter in prison set him on a mission to educate others, helping them shift from street hustling to owning shares in major corporations.   We discuss the profound impact of education on community empowerment, as Leon passionately recounts his experiences teaching free classes in underprivileged areas, providing tools to those trapped by circumstance. He emphasizes the universality of the stock market's opportunities, regardless of one's background. We also explore the dual nature of information, as Leon critiques how platforms like YouTube can both inspire and mislead those from impoverished backgrounds. This episode unravels the contrast between the illusion of lifestyle freedom often portrayed by entertainment figures and the genuine freedom that financial literacy and strategic investing can achieve.   The conversation takes a forward-thinking turn as we address the evolving landscape of opportunities, particularly how younger generations are recognizing the importance of authentic wealth. Leon shares his thoughts on the impending impact of AI on the workforce and stresses the urgency for adaptation and learning. We wrap up with a rapid-fire discussion on financial myths, personal style, and the evolution of ambition, leaving listeners with a powerful message: no matter where you start, change is possible, and success is within reach with the right information and mindset.   CHAPTERS    (00:00) - Escape the Drift (09:29) - Investing for a Better Future (19:05) - Empowering Communities Through Education (26:00) - Navigating Wealth (40:07) - Awakening to Evolving Opportunities (52:06) - Evolution Through Financial Wisdom (58:01) - Seeking Success Through Information   💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #escapingthedrift #leonhoward #wallstreettrapper #financialwisdom #financialliteracy #stockmarket #investing #communityempowerment #education #streethustling #strategicinvesting #financialindependence #poverty #representation #youtube #lifestyleaspirations #freedom #wealth #ai #workforce #knowledge #networking #personalgrowth #success #information #positivity

One book both trap kids and Wall Street kid execs should read. Um, and now escaping the drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you want to path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again. We're another episode of Like It Says in the Opening Man, the podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today streaming live by

the interwebs, man. I got a dude for you guys that's gonna blow you away. This is a cat that I am grateful that I get to call my friend. He is somebody that the first time I met him I was so impressed with him. It was unbelievable. And this is a guy whose story right started out straight hustling in the streets of one of my favorite places New Orleans as you all know. And man, just, you know, had some trouble, had some problems, you know, didn't make the right choices in life, went to jail and taught himself how to change his life

through the stock market. And when he got out, man, he could have just kept that to himself. He could have just said, no, I'm gonna get rich. But this dude made it a mission in his life to change not just his life, but the life of as many people in his community as he can. And I am in awe watching this guy do what he does

every day with his community. And I can't wait for him to pour into mind. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. This is Leon Howard, better known as the Wall Street Trapper. Trapper! What is up, man? What's good, brother? How are you, man? Good to see you beaming in from the new building in Atlanta. Glad to have you, man. Man, privilege, honor, man. You know, adversity is a privilege, I don't know man, adversity is a privilege man,

but I'm glad to have somebody like you to call you my friend, bro, because I'm a learner, man. I love learning, I love being a student. It's my favorite position is to be a student, man, and get around people that have knowledge and information, but most importantly, experience, man. And so I can just, you know,

withdraw as well as deposit in that bank account, not the bank bank account, but the relationship, the value account, so I can put into it and withdraw from it, man. So it's an honor and I thank you for having me, man. Yeah, I think that one of the things I've mentioned about you specifically on this show is, I talked about you the first time I met you at the

boardroom mastermind and we were I just said, the only word I could use with how this dude handles himself in these rooms is with grace. Because he shows up every day. Just just I mean, as much as you know, it is just as big as your ball and the things that you're doing are amazing. And we're going to get to them. You're still like, just feed me, feed me. Please, I'm so grateful for you guys

to help me with anything you can feed me as far as knowledge. And I love that about you, man. Because I got to tell you, I got to tell you what. I think that's the only way. I think we can get to a certain level, and we think that we know it all. But the minute you think you know it all, you become an automatic fool. You become a fool.

And so for me, it's, yeah, man, I just want to learn because I know that knowledge is the thing that equalizes. It's what levels the playing field. The knowledge is what levels the playing field. And so any room I go in, I want to give it maximum value, but I couldn't be a student every time. Well, obviously, man, I don't want to go to the time you were born to now. We don't have to go through every second of it,

but dude, just so people get an idea of the flavor of who you are. Obviously you grew up in New Orleans, man. And if you've ever been to New Orleans, man. You know, like so it do, you know, and if you've ever been to New Orleans, you know, if you've ever spent any real time there off of Bourbon Street and seen the real city, it is that city, you understand that it's a tough place to come up in certain areas of that town. Yeah, it's a hard place. For sure, man. Not, you know, you

don't see success in New Orleans. For me, I grew up saw my mom's get shot when I was nine happened maybe about 50 yards away from me And then you know, I went to prison at 16 I was homeless from about 13 to that time literally cuz you know my friend it was kind of it'd be kind of hard for Families to just take on another mile man, you know I'm saying so I don't regret hold my whole that against my family and nothing like that so 16 I went to prison for attempt murder on robbery a guy robbed me out of some drugs and I figured out who he was and you know I did what I felt like the streets taught me to do you know I'm? And so with the prison man and a guy saw me and I don't even think it was about me.

I just think that God works in a mysterious way. And I think he was just frustrated with the idea of seeing like so many young black men in prison just throwing their life away, man. Not giving itself a chance, not even knowing like what all life has to offer. You know what I'm saying? And it's easy to say that,

because I'm like, yo, you ain't here with me, but he was just like, y'all playing the wrong game, bro. And I was like, yo, how are we playing the wrong game when you in prison with me? Like, you... You... You... You...

But I had what was in New Orleans is called a red band. So they mean you on a type of capital offense, a temp murder on Robert Kajak and kidnap or something like that. And he had a red and white band, which means he was in federal custody. And so this thing about prison is so crazy is that like, if you go to the feds, it's kind of like a hierarchy. You know what I'm saying? It's kind of like you better than the rest of us. You know what I'm saying? It's kind of like you better than the rest of us.

You know what I'm saying? So instantly, believe it or not, it gave me a different level of respect for him. You know what I'm saying? Like out the gate. And he was like, man, listen, you need to learn how to do three things with your money, man. You're gonna get out of here.

And he was like, you need to learn how to make your money work for you. You need to learn how to stop spending time for money. and you've got to learn how to give value to people. He said, wealthy people use stocks because it's the easy way to build wealth, real estate because you can beat taxes and then you create a business because America gives you benefits. I was like, what? I had never heard that ever in my life. And so the rest of my time in prison I just focused on the stock market because it was the first thing he said What was he what was this guy in for?

Embezzlement so he had got two point eight million dollars. He paid eight hundred thousand restitution He kept two million dollars now In prison you can say anything, so I really didn't believe him. And then when he showed it to me in the paperwork, and you get to see 2.8 million, 800,000 restitution, two million to be, and I was like, wait, that's $2 million.

And so immediately, the belief factor was that. So now we talking about before Instagram, Facebook and all that was created. So he showed, not mind you, I'm from the hood. So I probably ain't been outside of New Orleans, maybe two hours outside of New Orleans, as far as I had been at this point in my life. And he showed me some pictures until this day. I have yet to go there, but I want to go. It was in Iceland.

It was, he was in this lagoon that had steam coming from the water and it had mountains behind him. And he had a bottle of champagne. And in my mind at 16, I couldn't comprehend the fact that how could the water be hot and you have mountains with snow behind it? Like that didn't register to me. And he was like, this is Iceland.

You gotta go there. And he just was showing me pictures of his lifestyle so for me somebody from the hood where I ain't really been out of New Orleans too much two million dollars on paperwork plus seeing the pictures and then he only had 18 months that was the kicker 18 months he was like you got 10 years for a 10 murray I got 18 months if I go home and even if I did it again, they could only give me 60 months. The next time you'll still be doing the 10 years in that. I tell you not, that was the thing that blew my brain. I was like, Oh, I really am playing the wrong game. And so that was it, man. That was the game changer for me, dude. It's so funny, man. As you tell that story, all I can think about is

the movie blow where he gets us where George Young gets put in that cell. The guy's dealing weed. No, no. What do you know about cocaine? Yeah, the difference is you got lucky with that guy saying, No, no, no, let me show you the real way to make money. Drugs. It's over here. So if you if you were blessed enough to do that, have you ever reconnected with that guy? Never. And I always say like, that's why I always say like, God is working mysterious ways, man, because I've never seen him

again in my life. You know what I'm saying? That was in 2000. Here he is in 2025. I've never seen him again in my life. Bro, you talk about the butterfly effect, man, the littlest thing. Like, how many people has that guy now, I mean, look, obviously what he did with you, but then you take that and you're so giving that chance encounter in prison. I mean, if you have, okay, let's just pick a number, right?

You've got to pick a number. How many lives are changed because of the conversations you had with that guy in prison? Man, if I'm being honest, it's not even quantifiable, but I would easily say a million. Yeah, it'd have to be. It would have to be a million people whose lives are affected by that.

Yeah, because for me, I'll be honest with you, man, the sole purpose for me doing this, it wasn't even much for me to teach to the level that I am right now. This happened by me being just showing up every day. It was really, if I'm being honest with you, it was for me to just go back to the hood, and I was just telling my homies in the hood,

like say, bro, like, bro, like, we wearing Nike, we using Apple phones, we wearing all the design and stuff, bro. Like all that's on a stock market. We wear Timberlands. We wear Dickie suits every day. That's a company by the name of VFC Corporation, bro. It's on a stock market, bro. Like we can own the stocks and bro, we can trade the stocks.

And in my mind, I was like, bro, that's what they doing. I'm like, oh, they don't sell dope. I'm like, and then this real, I said, if they do sell dope, it's through Johnson and Johnson. It's through Pfizer and Johnson is through Pfizer is through Merck is through Eli Lilly. I'm like bro. They not gonna jail for it We don't only want my bro. We really dummies. We were not really gangsters

they the real gangsters, bro, and so that was my whole message to all my homies in the street and You know, I had to flip the message a little bit because I told them. Alright, guess what? Let's say we let's say you don't wanna do this. Let's say, you know, we know what comes with being in the street, bruh. We go, all of us done been in jail. We living so we ain't dead, but all of us know at least 10 people that's died, 10 to 20 people that's dead.

And at that phase of my life, bruh, even now, I've been to more funerals than weddings. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like,'m like bro, like y'all know what we going for But I made them think I'm like when we do go will we leave our family? So I was like at least we could do is open these accounts up and there's at least our kids can have it And then I told one of my partners I told it this kind of changed his life one day. I said Let's say you start investing right now. We don't need the money, right?

Not saying we was some kingpins or nothing like that. We was mediocre hustlers in the street and I'll make a couple thousand dollars a week. I said, but let's say you, we don't need the money right now. But if we go to jail and we come home, we can get that money and we ain't gotta ask nobody for nothing. We don't gotta ask somebody to give us nothing.

We don't come out on our ass. We come out with a few thousand dollars and we good. And that was the thing that kind of like sparked it for a lot of my homies. It was like, let me put some money up for a bad day at least. At least let me put some money up for a bad day. And that's how I kind of got them into investing. So here's a question though, when you're doing that, obviously, man, you come back. Yeah, you've got this whole new

philosophy on what we all should be doing. And at least at least some percentage of your friends were like, bro, you've lost this dude's losses. Yeah, he thought he is absolutely lost his mind. Yeah. How hard was it for you? Like there has to be this this at that point, right? Where you're like, I got to cut some of these people out. Like I gotta I gotta start eliminating people from my life if I'm gonna get to where it is. How hard of a transition was that for you? And how did you

handle that? Man, it's still something I go through, bro. I'm not gonna lie to you. Because these were people that I not just grew up with but like I've been in life or death situations with. You know what I'm saying? So it's hard to tell somebody who, you know, if I'm being honest, like y'all done got shot at and shot at people together with.

I've trusted you with my life. Like, it's hard for me to just say no. So kinda what I did was I took myself. So what I did was I started doing iron work. And so, and I'll say this, like it wasn't even easy for me to just go all in on this. Like I still was fighting my own battles because the hardest thing for a person

that comes from the street to do is lead the street and it's not even much about the money. It's about, I don't know another lifestyle. Yeah. It's the only thing you know, man. You're going to fight every day. Yeah. It's all I know, man. So it's what you see. Yeah. Yeah. So you can't just tell me, go get a job. It ain't that easy. It sounds easy. It's not that easy You know I'm saying so I was back in the street for us so I want up the thing that happened to me again, I say God works or something crazy in some phenomenal ways because I Wound up catching another charge where the police kicked my door in so they found 10 pounds of weed $10,000 or 223 a 40 with extended clip and a beam dollars, a 223, a 40 with extended clip and a beam and a bulletproof vest. And so I want to beat the charge because they kicked in my door with no search warrant. And so that's

called fruit of a poisonous tree, which means if you kick in a door with no search warrant, everything that you find is null and void. And the thing about the court system was even though they saw that, I still had to go to trial with it because the court says he got to prove it. He got to prove it. And so that lawyer, my lawyer, John Fuller, he cost me a pretty penny. And it was at that moment where I had like this epiphany like, damn, like I'm doing this all over again. And I know better. The crazy part was when the police kicked my door and I was, the stock market was on the TV my doing I was the stock market was on the TV and

The man the stock market was on the TV and he saw like my welding equipment and stuff right there And he told me something I really hurt my feelings man He said you got to be really stupid to know how to weld and you watching the stock market But you selling drugs you got to be real stupid and that bro Listen that pierced my heart in a way. It made me, that's probably one of the lowest feelings I ever felt for somebody that called me stupid. And he like, you got the stock market on

and all of your welding equipment is right here. So you making, I was making about two, three thousand dollars a week just welding. He's like, you got to be stupid, bro. You must want to go to jail. And I was just, I felt so low. I felt so low, bruh. So I wound up being in charge and then I took a job about an hour away from New Orleans,

it's called Baton Rouge, in a power plant. And that's how I kind of got out of my environment. And then from there, I was traveling, so I got another job out here in Atlanta to build the Falcon Stadium. That's how I got away from my environment. It wasn't because I just told my partners I can't rock with y'all. I literally moved from by them was doing other work and that helped me focus on what I'm doing now.

Do you find that now that you know, you become incredibly established now, obviously, man, you're a whole never whole never level to the game. Do you find now it's easier to try to reach back to those folks? Oh, yeah, maybe you left at that point and say, Hey, you know, let's, let's figure this out. Oh, yeah. So I always tell people this. It's hard to tell people to do something that you know will work if it hasn't worked for you yet. Right, so I can be telling them to invest their money, invest their money, but they don't see how investing my money has freed me.

So how you gonna tell me do something and you freeing me? It's kind of like the guy in jail. How you gonna tell me I'm playing the wrong game and you sitting in the cell with me? Evidently you not playing the right game either. But it was the nuances of why he was there. So for me, when my partners know what the scene, Oh, like free really making money doing that. Oh, he really, Oh,

he really doing that like that. Oh, that's really changing the game farm. So now they became more open to the lie. Hey, man, show me how you do that, bro. Hey, where to put this $10,000 at, bro. Hey, man, come holler when you come home. And so it became easier, and then I knew the respect had grew for me more because, you know, again, New Orleans is a New Orleans man, beautiful place, I love it, but it's a violent place, man. So I would come home and some of my,

I would try to go in the hood and some of my potters would be like, hey, look, man, we getting into it right now, I don't come around here. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's when I knew, like, the level of respect that they had for me was on another level. It was like, hey, we getting into it right now. Are we beefing with such and such and such and such? It's hot around here. I know you in town. Don't come through. We'll come holler at you or come holler at us next time. So that became a sense of, oh, I see the respect. You know what I'm saying?

Because you never, once you see somebody make it out, you don't want, they become the thing you look forward to. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh, we can do that. He ain't playing football, nothing against that. He ain't rapping. Like, here's what he's doing. Oh, we can do that.

We just gotta get out of this. And so it became easier for me to talk to him that way. Well, I think the mistake a lot of people make, man, when they're in a bad situation and trying to change their situation is it's, let's all try to do this together. Let's all go together. And like when you're on an airplane, man, what do they say? If the oxygen mask drops, you put it over your face first, then you help everybody else, right? Like you got to help yourself first. And then you can, you know, then you can do that. And I think that, yeah, you know, obviously, man, I can't imagine what it was like going up in that in that kind of

situation. I'm blessed that that wasn't me. I'm incredibly blessed that way. But I think the fact that you took that as responsibility, and that carried your mission forward is what is what's honestly I think I think a lot of people talk about going back and helping and trying to do right for where they came from. I think a lot of people talk that. But I don't think people do it at the level that you do. So my question is, obviously, man, like, I'm not going to say this isn't a

calling to you as an admission because it obviously is of all of your priorities. How, how brightly does that candle burn in you, man? Oh man, it's, it's outside of my, I'll be honest with you, man. Outside of my daughter, that's the next thing for me because one, my daughter is the first thing because I never want her to experience that life. I wanna rob her of that. But next is because I know when I was there, whether it was homeless, whether it was coming from prison, whatever it was, man, like I didn't see tomorrow. You know what I'm saying?

Like I didn't, you know, every day it was, yup, either I could die today, I could go to prison today, but no matter what, I'm ready for both of them. You know what I'm saying? And so, because I didn't have hope. And when you look up to rappers and football players like me, I'm like, bro, like, I'm not bothered to play no football. And I didn't need much rap that Yeah. Trap is not a large fellow for those. Yeah. I'm five, 10 at best. You know what I'm saying? So, and I ain't a fan. I might run a full nine. So I knew that wasn't my calling and rapping wasn't my thing. So to get here, now I know that I know how many more me's there that's left. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I know how many more me's there that's left. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? I know how many more me's that's still there. The one thing about no matter what hoods you go to, poverty is the language that speaks the loudest. You know what I'm saying? Lack of resources is the place that speaks the loudest. One of the things we can tend to do in that situation is because we don't have a great outlook on life, because we're so prismed by our current reality because we don't have a great outlook on life because

we so prismed by our current reality. We don't even have the tools, right? And so for me, it's been able to go down and say, yo, here's the tools family. So last year, 2023, my company and myself, we went to eight cities. We went to New Orleans, Houston, Atlanta, LA, Dallas, New York, Philly, Baltimore, and we went deep in the hood. Three hour class, we taught it for free. We brought out 300 people every show.

Every time we did it, no violence happened, no nothing. And the goal was simply to go in the hood and say, hey, bruhuh here's some tools and this don't have to be your reality let's make another choice and if this one don't care about your mama not being there your daddy not being that the market don't care about your credit score the market don't care about none of the things that you know so-called corporate America cares about the market doesn't care and if I can give you these tools, bro, this could change your life.

And so that's the core. That's that burn that flame will never go out because at the end of the day, I am still that. Yeah, I mean, it's obviously, dude, it's obviously the rocket fuel that makes you move. Yeah, I just mean, I mean, I don't ever see you do anything half speed. Come out of your mouth, half speed. And like, it's funny, because you were talking and I love how you take what's the current, even the current administration, man, things that

are happening. And you talk to people that are in situations they should I saw a video you posted on your social maybe I don't know how long this was maybe three months ago, man, where you were talking about, or maybe we were talking about, I don't know. We were talking about how the drug laws were getting ready to change. And if you are somebody that's out there, like you've got to get serious about replacing that job as quickly as you can, or you're going to find yourself in a bad way. Bad situation. Yeah.

It's because man, like I didn't have the privilege to worry about voting Republican or Democrat. Yeah. I had the privilege. I didn't have that luxury. Every day was a life of that situation. And so not to say that's not my fight because as an American, you know, that is going to be your fight. But some people don't have the luxury to focus on who is the senator, who is the president. They focused on how do I eat, how do I get the rent paid, how do I get the bills paid? This person's shooting at me, that person just killed my brother, that person just killed. So they there.

And so even though it's not right or wrong, it's still a reality. But we don't have the luxury to that. So my thing is, hey, bro, here's the laws that are coming. Here's the laws that are putting in place. Hey, you got to change. You can't be stuck in your ways. And also here's a better option. Look at me. I speak the language, you know me, let's change. You know what I'm saying? Because representation matters. So the knowledge, and I'm not even, I don't ever act like I'm the best person to ever do this.

That's not it. But what happens is when somebody comes with a suit and a tie and a hood, we automatically discredit it. Man, you ain't been through what I've been through, man. Get out of here, man. You don't know what it's like. We don't even give a person a chance. So for me is hey, I got a I still wear my hoodies, bro What's up? Let's change. So it's just being able to Not only be the imagery but also have the vocabulary that they can relate to to say and

Right. Listen 16 brah. I was in prison. I know what it's like to be almost kidnapped. I know what it's like to get shot, bro. You ain't telling me, it ain't a story in the street that you can tell me that I can relate to. So we not gonna use it as no excuse no more. We gonna get to it.

And so yeah, man, that's, when I post, I try my best not to post from a biased perspective, because I know a lot of times, people coming from certain areas don't have the luxury. Well, dude, I do want to talk about that. Um, because you're such a monster on YouTube, right? You're just my question is this, I don't think anybody with half a brain or that's been well traveled across this country is going to argue that generational poverty is a thing. Being born to situations and we're like you said, all you see is the streets and it's where you are. How do you think YouTube and the information that

you can get on YouTube is, is diminishing that reason for people staying where they are? Like, what effect do you think that has? And where do you think it goes in the future, man? You think people is good. Man, I think YouTube, YouTube is like drinking from a wall from a fire hydrant, right? Because the, the, one of the worst things. So not having the information is one thing and then having too much

information is one thing and then having too much information is another thing and then with YouTube What happens is you get a there's a lot of information there? But also there's people that sell lifestyle more than anything and I think that's what hurts people who come from that generational poverty because You then search for the lifestyle instead of the freedom, right? And so I think YouTube, like anything,

has the good and the bad. But I think that streaming helps things get better. That's one of the things we're doing. That's why we take media so serious over here, because we wanna control that narrative I think streaming I think YouTube is just a it's a beast remember you so people don't know this but YouTube actually has more watch time than Netflix Right so YouTube has more watch time than any other stream service

which means people can go straight to the person that they like and look at them and listen to them and then people can go straight to the person that they like and look at them and listen to them and then take on their reality of life. So I think that YouTube is such a phenomenal vehicle, but if you're not looking for the right thing, you can definitely get lost and then you'll find yourself chasing the wrong thing which could then actually hurt you more than it.

I think, you know, something I just realized and I never thought about it like this way, but you just said I think, you know, something I just realized that I never thought about like this way, but but you just said something that, you know, people chase lifestyle, and especially people that come from from serious poverty, you're looking for lifestyle. And I think for people that don't come from that, youth causes you to chase lifestyle. And I think when you get a little older, you understand that true wealth buys time.

Because you start to understand how finite your time on this planet is. But I think, you know, as we talked about it, it must be hard to sell that to people because the situation that you were in, man, I mean, at 15, 16 years old, you probably didn't think you had much time anyways, what difference did it make? Nah, I didn't. Man, I'm mad. I didn't even think I was gonna get to see 21 man. I'll be honest with you. It's, it's, it's actually easy to sell lifestyle to people because entertainment world makes that look like freedom. Right, you gotta remember we looking up to from that world. We not, so when you coming from the street,

you not looking up to the Wall Street investor. You're not looking up to the real estate investor. You're looking up to the rapper who is not actually as wealthy as he looks he is, or he or she is, but they selling us lifestyle. You're looking up to the pro football player or the basketball player. What we see when they ball, we see them wear all the jewelry.

You're looking up to those types of people. So we get this idea, we looking up to the movies that we watch. And so we think that lifestyle equates to freedom. And so you start to chase that. If you're smart, it can. If you're smart. If you're smart, it can. If you're smart, if you're smart. Yeah. Did you see? Did you see? I did you see Iverson the other day? Did you see that story? Oh, yeah.

They see and see what AI did. So what happens to is he has somebody so brilliant with him. He's still getting $800,000 a year from Reebok. Dude, he just got he put some of his money in here in, uh, in untouchable trust that he could not touch until certain milestones. He just turned 50, I think the number was, and he just got 50 mill for that. It's just sitting there girl. Growing. Not only did he have that.

And again, that's come from having people in your corner that talks to you about, Hey, don't lose this, right? Not only did he get that, but he also signed a deal with Reebok Earl when he first signed a deal and said, hey, listen, at a certain age, don't pay me nothing. And then at this age, after I retire, unlock that. So then I think maybe like five years ago, he started getting another $800,000 a year from them.

You know what I'm saying? And so that's what happens. And a lot of times we don't have people that have that connection to money or understand how to, so every day is survival mode and it's hard to get out of survival mode. So you start saying to yourself, you know what? I'm gonna spend it all while I got it.

Cause I don't got that long here. And so for me, the one thing I never ever did was talk lifestyle. I always talked about freedom. I always talked about being able to be with my daughter until you know growing old, being a grandfather, having experiences. You know, I'll take a trip before I buy a car. You know what I'm saying? I won't buy some real estate. I won't pay monopoly in real life. Like those are the things that matter to me. And so now what I do love about the generation now is they are picking up on what real wealth is. They are picking up on it. Like they starting to, they are starting to get it because you know, you don't want to be, I have a saying that you want to be the last one that get it out the mud.

Everybody else can get it out the market and that market can be the stock market, it can be real estate. I think business is the most exciting sport that you can ever play. Yeah, man. I think YouTube has ups and downs, but again, we have to be the curators of the content that changes the dynamic. And that's why we started the Wall Street looks like a net. Well, let me ask you this, man. So obviously, when you're welding, and you're making three grand a week, and you're watching the stock market, but you get caught with 10 grand in

cash in your thing, that wasn't about surviving. That was about a quick money, right? It was, it was a mentality of getting money as fast as I can. Now, obviously that philosophy does not jive at all with what you do now. So how did you unlearn that? I need it fast to I'm willing to let it grow. How did, how did you unlearn that? Man, I'll be bad. It was reading this book, man. I'll tell you the first book I read in prison was Robert

Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad. And it's not an investing book, but it was a mindset shift for me in a way that I had never seen nobody talk about money. We talk in 2001. You know what I'm saying? I had never heard nobody talk about money that way. And so You know what I'm saying? I had never heard nobody talk about money that way. And so after that, I started just reading books on Lauren Buffett. And one of the things Buffett always talked about was the patience. And I remember him saying, like, if you had to only make 10 investments for the rest of your life, you would choose them wisely. And then another statement was somebody is sitting in the shade right now from a tree

that was planted 20 years ago. And I was like, man, that's how money grow? And so just reading the more and more I read about wealthy people and wealthy families, I realized that nobody cared about the right now. Everybody cared about what does this look like 10 years from now, 15 years from now? What does it look like when I'm gone? You know what I'm saying? And so that was the transition for me.

It wasn't one thing, it was just like reading so much at one time and realizing all I kept saying to myself was, you playing the wrong game. That word that he told me stuck in my head. And it was like, are you playing the wrong game? Even's all that word that he told me stuck in my head. And it was like, are you playing the wrong game? Even when I got to trading, it was like my trades, I don't even day trade.

Like I put my trades out for two months, three months, four months, five months. Even that philosophy is what made me trade the way I did. It was like, nah, let me let it grow. And then you start, there's nothing like the excitement of seeing money grow for me faster than I can work for. You know what I'm saying? He was like, yo, what?

And so that was it. And again, coming from where I came from, all you need is proof that something works to keep that fire going in you. Well, let's talk about this, because man, you've been in the game for a while, and I know that your investment philosophy has probably changed as you've gotten older.

So walk me through if you had to hit the high points of what, like, I totally believed in this for a hot second, and then I let it go, and this is why, and I totally believed in this for a hot second and then I let it go and this is why and I believe in this and this and let's get it all the way up to where you are now. Yup. So at first it was um, like investing in just what you use, right? So that was the first like investing what you use. So I would just be buying all kind of 18

fees and buying all that stuff and then I saw the adapt and the Warren Buffett philosophy of like buying at a discount I was like, oh that's different and so I remember buying Waste management Garbage company and Buffett always said that boring is better. You know, I'm saying I remember buying waste management At a cheap price. I was like dang All right, and I remember looking at it like five months later and it had like tripled and I was like, whoa Okay, and so then I switched to stop trying to buy everything to buy boring companies. And then it went to Warren Buffett said don't buy technology. So I kind of stayed away from technology for a while.

And then I saw the pace at which Amazon, Apple, Tesla. I was like, wait, Buffett might don't got this one right. You know what I'm saying? Maybe he didn't call us what exactly right. Yeah, maybe he gets it right. And so I remember pivoting to like technology. And then I was like, yo, this is it. And so then I started wrapping my brain around economics, saying, wait, how does

this remind me of the hood? Like, what is the tariff? You know, like, oh, a tariff is somebody trying to hustle in his neighborhood. But in order to hustle in his neighborhood, you got to pay me draft. If you don't pay me draft, you can't hustle in this neighborhood." I said, oh, that makes sense. Right? And so I went to ask myself, like, who can hustle in this neighborhood and still make money? You know what I'm saying? Even if they had war. And so like, I went to correlate everything to the streets. And so that took me to another level because it made sense. And so then I got into trading. And then that took me to a level that I'm now still like, because this is never ending right here. You know what I'm saying? And so then it went to trying to day trade and I was like,

man, this ain't for me right here. And then I went to, yeah, I'm like, this ain't for me. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm like, nah, this ain't for me right here. So then I went to more swing trading like eight months, I mean, four months, six months, eight months. I'm like, wait a minute. If I buy great companies and then trade them for six, eight months out, I'm putting the game in my favor.

They'll go to some ups and downs, but in the long run, because the market goes up 76% of the time, it's an increase. We're talking about buy puts. You're talking about buy puts and calls right now? That's what you're doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I went to trade. And so then I went to mixing, trading to investing. And then I heard a bunch of people say that you're not supposed to beat the market. And I was like, that's bullshit. You know what I'm saying? And so then I went to compete with myself on how can I beat the markets? We beat the market six years in a row.

And so I just kept compounding information. I just kept on like I'm with y'all. I just kept telling myself, they're not smarter than me. They just got more information than me. So if I can dig into the information, I can quadruple my returns. You know what I'm saying? And so that was my walkthrough. It went from buying ETFs and index funds and then getting to individual stocks, then getting

to tech stocks, and then just to individual stocks, then get into tech stocks, and then just graduated into trading. And so now, like last year, I had my first trade where I made a million dollars in one trade. That blew my mind. You know what I'm saying? And so that was kind of the philosophy of how I just kept evolving.

I just felt like the market wasn't smarter than me. If I just, and I always say this to myself, if I can survive bullets and if I can survive the streets, man, I can survive losing a little money. Yeah. What's worse, it could happen to me, right? Like lose a little bit of money. Yeah. That gave me a risk tolerance. Yeah. I was, I was going to, I was going to say that man is like, your risk aversion must be just zero.

Just, yeah, it's like, I mean, as long as I'm gonna wake up and be able to hug my daughter, I'm better off 20 years ago and let's go that. That is it. It's like, yo, as long as I'm not putting my life on the line if the worst thing that can happen to me is losing some money. Oh man. Have you found yourself maybe getting a little more conservative maybe buying some treasuries maybe doing those things to kind of put the park park a little bit on the sidelines or you still full tilt with it? I ain't dead yet. park a little bit on the sidelines or you still full tilt with that? Yeah, I ain't daddy. The most the most conservative I'm gonna be is.

Well, we talked about that the first time I met the first time I met trap. But there's you guys listening. We're sitting there and I was like, so, you know, hey, man, you know, you're killing the game in the stock market. You do what you do. What are you doing here? And he told me his tax bill. And I was like, Oh, that's what you're doing. I'm like, I'm like, you're sitting in a room full of a bunch of people that probably made as much or close and nobody in here paid taxes. That blew my mind, but that you know, I felt like You know, yeah, that blew my mind, the hell am I doing on here? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that

blew my mind, bro. Like I just, but again, it's the patience and learning the game. And that's why I'm so grateful for people like you, man, because, and that bull remaster minds, because no one that I've met so far has been stingy with the knowledge. No, no. You know, how can we help you, bro? Like, I got the lawyer right know, how can we help you, bro? Like I got the lawyer right now, how can we help you, bro? What can we do to help you, Trapp? You know, and it's me saying, bro, like first of all, how can I help you?

You know what I'm saying? But that's what I love. And that's why I go in every room with grace because I know I have a knowledge that can help anybody, but I also know that somebody in every room can help me. And so I go in the room to serve and if I don't know nothing, I'm there getting information and being excited about it.

You know what I'm saying? So yeah, man, that, that $2 million tax bill punched me in the face, man. I was trying to remember who said this. I remember it was somebody was talking to a room full of people and said, who in here has made a million bucks? And in one year, and you know, if you haven't raised your hand, and there have been the room, a lot of these people raise their hand and then he said, you know, what whatever, take the amount of money that you've made the most you've ever made. And then

the difference between that number of million dollars, that's what you paid in the ignorance tax. Just because you're not bothered because making a million dollars isn't hard if you just go find the information on how to do it. But people just get complacent, sit there, sit their lives and coast along and drift along which where you know, obviously escaping the drift. That's the whole point of this and drift along. Yeah, you know, obviously escaping the drift. That's the whole point of this and drift along. Yeah,

without ever just seeking the information they need to get out of it. How do people do that, man? Why? Well, a lot of times, a lot of times, man, you know, you get sold on. It's the best they get. You get sold on it, man. Like you get sold on it, man. I was a point in my life, man, where every day I got up, I was like, it's gonna be prison or death.

I'm cool with it. It is what it is because 60, 75% of the people who I know have passed away, this how they passed away. So eventually like, I'm not better than them. You know what I'm saying? These are people I looked up to, these are people I, so you know, you cool with it.

And even in prison, bro, like I was just telling my, I had a speak last speaking last week in Dallas and I was telling them, imagine being in prison doing 10 years and you talking to somebody and y'all both feel like you could do another 10 or 15 years. That's the conversation like, bro, what you gonna do when you get home?

Shit, boy, you know, I'm gonna hustle, boy. I could do another 10. That's the conversation. Right, so you don't think you're better. You get sold on the environment. You get sold on, yo, this is my outcome. This is good as it gets, right? Like, they over there being millionaires,

man, I can't never, if I ain't gonna be a millionaire selling dope, I ain't gonna never get there. You know, if I ain't gonna be a millionaire jacking dope dealers, I ain't gonna get there. And so you get sold on the environment, bruh. And that's why I'm so grateful for, that's why I say again, God is so amazing because that man put those six little phrases

and I attached to him. Now I didn't come home and do the right thing off the gate, but in my mind, I was using that to get me here, to get me there. Right, that was gonna be the next step. And so that's what it is brother. Like so many people just get so on the environment and then it's like, yo, man, as good as it gets. I think, and I'm not just talking about, you know, impoverished neighborhoods, I'm talking about

middle-class neighborhoods, man. We're about to have a real problem in America because AI is coming for your ass. If you've got some menial job, if you've got some job that you don't have to think a lot about, you better figure it out right now because you're going to have a real problem real fast. I mean, some of the stuff that we're, you know, even for my companies that we're developing through, and I'm not talking about chat, GBT, right, you plan my trip to Mexico. I'm talking about AI agents that can manage other AI agents to run your company, dude, we're about two years away from some 17 year old kid running a billion dollar company from his parents basement with the smartest robot CEO on

on Wall Street, the CFO that could have gone to Wharton and it's all they're all they're all bots. We're about two years from that. Listen, we just had a conversation yesterday. I came yesterday, we was loading some stuff up here and we talked about that. And I said, bro, I said almost the same thing you said. I said, you know, we only about two to three years away

from like AI being 60% of the workforce, the workforce. They put them in warehouses and that's what I mean, warehouse jobs gone. They about to have automatic cars. So that mean Uber and Lyft going to have to do something, right? They got them everywhere, bro. I'm like, so if so many people about to just go and they not gonna know how to figure it out. And I said, the crazy part about that AI situation is nothing is safe. Nothing is safe. So you got to keep learning. You got to keep evolving because the minute you think your job safe, you lost. Well, I think that's why I resonate so much with you, man, is, you know, like when my new book coming out in November and

the podcast and kind of everything I do, that is my quest, man, is to wake people, is to wake people up out of that mediocrity, man, because, you know, like you look at the name of this podcast and the name of my book is the same thing, escaping the drift. But, and I'd urban McManus on here the a couple of weeks ago when he said something that was just unreal, right? He goes, Yo, he just kept coming back to it

because he just he's everyone and that's what I want to us and he's amazing. He just kept coming back to the name. He's like, you know, he's like the worst part about that is life moves on whether you're moving or not. So the problem, the problem is, as life is moving on, it's carrying you in a direction that you may not necessarily want to go. So it replicates movement. And you think you're progressing, you think you're moving, and you don't realize you're going over the waterfall until it's too late. So that's

good right now. You know, with all of this over the waterfall until it's too late. So that's right now, you know, with all of this coming, man, it's my quest too to wake up as many people as I can to take control of their lives before they don't have a choice. Because- And I think you got the voice for it, man. I got the hair for it. You got the voice, I got the hair for it.

That's all I'm going for. But that's it I'm going for. But that's it, man. People, um, and I think that's what's so important. That's what I think is so great about media, right? It's it's being able to go direct to consumer going direct to people saying, hey, here's what you need to do. And of course we can't save them all. But every day you get on this show and every time you drop a show and every time you drop a book, you plant the seed in somebody. And all we

need is a seed, a seed got me here. You know what I'm saying? A seed, somebody drop a seed on you somewhere. So a seed, that's what these media platforms represent. And so I think- Yeah, I got smacked in the face yesterday by a buddy of mine smacked me in the face, not literally smacked me in the face, but I got smacked in the face, dude. And I'm the same as you. It's like, if you're not coachable, you're never going to get in the next level. You got to take criticism, especially from people that know what they're doing.

And a buddy of mine was in my car, I gave him a ride to the airport yesterday. And he runs a company that advises some of the biggest personal brands and brands on the planet on content creation. And he's trying to, he's all of a sudden like decided because my book's coming out, he's like, ah, we're gonna sort you out, we're gonna get you squared away. And I had started this little thing on my socials,

like, oh, I wanna get my book on the New York Times about sellers about a lot. And he looks at me, he goes, Yeah, man, it was just flat. No engagement on sucks. And he goes, Yeah, man, I gotta tell you, we did a full audit on your deal. And we're gonna square it up. But as I look at that, what's in it for the reader, man? What's in it for the viewer? Like that's about you. He's like, you're posting ego shit. Nobody cares.

And I was like, Whoa, and just prepping for this with you a little bit today, of course I look back through some of your content and dude, you don't post anything unless this, what I'm saying right now is designed to do one thing. And that one thing is help you. Nah, that's so real, man. Early on, I made a conscious decision

that everything that we drop was designed to help a person watching what we was doing. Everything, none of it was about me. People be like, yo, tell, you know, we gotta hear, like, we gotta hear your story. And I'll be like, that's more about me. you know I'm saying it'll help somebody yeah, but that's more about me How do I?

We're not when I really got into speaking heavy It was how do I pour into people to help them? So everything we do everything that I do everything about brand, one of the things that we have here is obsessed over the user. You gotta be obsessed over the user. So anybody that comes in here, we gotta be obsessed over them. Anybody that gets a piece of content from us,

we gotta be obsessed over them. Anything that we sell, we gotta be obsessed over the person that's taking their time and listening to us, taking the time to go in there while and buy something from us. How do we be obsessed over helping the person

have an experience? And for me, it's, again, we talked about me just being passionate about this. I'm passionate about like helping somebody because I know that sometimes, you know, we can always say, man, nobody wasn't there for me. Well, somebody was praying for me, man. You know what I'm saying? Somebody probably couldn't be there for me financially, but I know some people that was praying for me and that helped me. I know that, you know, when I was going to trial, my mom couldn't come, but there was a girl I

was dealing with and her mom came to trial and that helped me. And so when we don't get the help that we want from the people that we want, there's always somebody else that's there that we don't see. And so for me, when I'm putting my information out there is, yeah, am I gonna always get the engagement that I want? But I know for a fact, I'm helping somebody. You crush man because you're so giving it everything that you do. That's why you crush, right? So when I'm looking at this today, I'm like, I mean, I already knew he was right, because the dude's a genius. I mean, if he built that liver King dude, he can help me. So I was just like, I Yeah,

you know, before he knew he was on steroids, he took the gig. Yeah, they built. Yeah, they manufactured him at a thin air. It was it was amazing. Anyway, so this is something I started doing, man that I really like. Which is kind of a rapid fire deal. So I don't I chat GBT I tell you obviously they it knows who you are. And I say give me 20 lightning round questions. We just answer as fast as possible. You ready? Oh, I love this. I've been doing this. That's great.

Ready? Here we go. on real estate for steady long-term wealth. First financial skill you teach a 13 year old. First financial skill you would teach a 13 year old. How to sell. Great. What habits pull me back? What happens? What can happen that puts you instantly in survival mode? Something with my family logo. My family and danger. I'm not logo hoodie or button down suit. Where are you happiest?

I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm my family. Logo. My family in

danger. Logo hoodie or button down suit. Where are you happiest? Button down suit man. Bubble tea or Red Bull. Which one? Bubble tea or Red Bull for long nights looking at charts. Oh man. Bubble tea. Bubble right. Biggest wealth building lie you have ever seen go viral? To save and make you wealthy. One book both trap kids and Wall Street kid execs should read. Financial freedom, my only hope. Is crypto, a trap or trapped order freedom. Ooh, that's a sink trap door trap door.

What's your most hated investing advice? By index funds on you could scream one stock name. most hated investing advice. By index funds only. You could scream one stock name. What is it? Nvidia. Passive income myth and must have. Must have. Black owned or mainstream brokerage. What matters the most? Damn. Uh, mainstream. Hey, put it on you, man. It's not me. It's chat. GBT, uh, Instagram or YouTube.

Where do you win the best YouTube therapy or money coaching? What's more urgent for your audience? Therapy favorite word in financial circles that should be should should be banned. Generational wealth fear or greed. What's your true enemy? Greed. One thing people assume about you that isn't true. And I'm that I mean, best financial decision under $100 you've ever made.

My my daughter, her first role model in billionaire culture, you pull into trapper you. Bill McDonough. I'm going to ask you one more that is in my new, it's actually, this is for me more than anything else. Cause I asked, it's funny. I have asked this question twice. I asked it to Erwin McManus and I asked it to Neil Dingra and both of them answered in a way that was so funny. I asked him to answer it in a way that was so funny. I asked him to answer it in a way that was so funny. I asked him to answer it in a way that was so funny. I asked him to answer it in a way that was so funny. I asked it to Erwin McManus and I asked it to Neil Dhingra. And both of them answered in a way that we'll get to in a minute. Here's the question. What's one

question on podcasts you wish people would stop asking you? They asked so many, it may be. What was it like? Okay, there you go. The reason I asked the reason I asked that is because both Erwin and Neil answered with questions that like, I've asked a million times. I'm like, I'm like, yeah, that's good. That's not people. But for me is always man, what was it like in prison? Like what? The food's bad. I wore a gym suit.

The only and I will say the only reason, um, the suit, the only reason I answered the suit and now because I'm starting to like suits. You know what it is? I'll tell you that. I tell you people, I tell people this all the. Dress for the day that you want not the day that you have. And there's something about when you put on that I just bought two new suits yesterday, right? They'll be here in about three weeks. Something about man, when you put that suit on, it's like Superman putting that outfit on. You can just take over the entire world. Something about it.

I'm with you, dude. Something about it. A couple a couple a couple months ago, maybe a year ago, I would have said the hoodie, but I mean, I've been buying these Tom for suits, man. And I've been getting these tailor-made suits, man. And they just, man, they feel different. No, here's the thing. Dude, I saw a clip of you, I think it was your Dallas speech when you were on stage in a suit. Was that you in a suit in Dallas that was I got to, I got to tell you, man, you were owning that room. And I think that suit has, I think it did bad. I really think it did.

Yes, sir. Man. I love it, man. Um, you know, and that's, that's part of the evolution of who I am. Just evolve and being better, growing into new things, not being stuck in the same mindset, um, you better, growing into new things, not being stuck in the same mindset, you know, evolving, cause you know, I want to be a person that when people look at me, I come from,

I come from, they can look and say, damn bro, like, I saw that evolution happen and I can, I can be that. You know what I'm saying? Bro, I normally sum up the show with like some eloquent quote about what happened today, but I think that just did it. Trapp, if they want to catch up with you, where do they find you?

Man, thank you for letting me be here. You catch me on Instagram wall underscore street underscore trapper on YouTube Wall Street Trapper and then we have a new channel we created called the Wall Street looks like us in our network. So yeah, hit me up and I appreciate you. I love you, man. I love watching what you do. You keep at it, bro. I'll see you soon. All right. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you, man. Like he said so eloquently and I'll butcher now trying to do this for you guys. I don't care what your circumstances are. I don't care where you start.

It's not about where you start. It's about where you finish. And if you want to finish better than you started, the answer is information. Go get it and use it. We'll see you next time. What's up everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com. You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review, give us a share,

do something, man, we're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.